Hubby Update

[kathy]

And very late I have to say. My apologies.

From the time he was admitted with a suspected stroke, then seizures, and has undergone every test medically possible, including an LP, and we were told by the neurologist he has eliminated everything, which included brain cancer, stroke, epilepsy, lyme, lupus and others, but could not rule out MS.

He's on anti-seizure meds, plavix, zoloft for depression and a couple of other meds. He's not doing too badly. Still has what he calls strange sensations which used to announce a seizure. Lots of pain in the legs and hips, headaches, fatigue, mood swings and probably worse of all, he'll act like he's drunk. Been recovering 20 years this April. Horrible flashbacks for me you can bet. He was a dopey and silly drunk most of the time, so those are the emotions he shows at times.

We saw a specialist in Philly last month hoping to find a reason for the lesions on his brain. He'd gotten hurt at work and received a high pressure injection of hydrocarbons into his hand. Hydrocarbons, when broken down into their separate chemical components are toxic. He thought that perhaps the toxins had caused the lesions, which then caused all the problems. She said no, but I've sent her information we spent months collecting which may prove it is a distinct possibility. Still waiting on a final answer from her on that.

But, back to prior to the trip to Philly...I got his hospital medical records to take with us and read thru them. Two other doctors, not including the neurologist said they felt he had MS. His neurologist did nothing to further examine the possibility, nor start any type of treatment that would slow the progression of the disease. We became furious. He wouldn't return our calls and his secretary always defended him. We couldn't believe he was so busy that he couldn't take 2 minutes to call and talk to us. And it would take 7 weeks to get an appointment.

Philly again. So the doc there said she thought it was MS...FOURTH doctor to say he had MS.

I started calling the neurologist leaving messages and after 2 weeks called him on his cell phone while he was seeing patients at the hospital. He didn't return the call, but had his secretary call us back 3 days later and referred hubby to an MS specialist down in Baltimore for what he called a second opinion. To us, it will be a 5th opinion.

Hopefully, they'll finally give hubby a diagnosis so he can start treatment. We plan on staying with the new doc if he'll let us because they're always running clinical trials and have a staff of 5 docs and 4 nurses. At least we'd know there would be someone we could call in the event of an emergency.

So that's how things stand at this point...oh oh oh oh....forgot. 3 weeks prior to Christmas, he broke a front bridge which had 3 teeth. Went to dentist and he broke the other one off. He walked around for 10 weeks without front teeth...holidays and all. He finally got his partial today and is happy as a clam.

He's filing for SSD, which we have a 30% chance of getting approved on the first filing. But I've already talked with an atty and he said to go ahead and file and if they deny it, which he said they probably will, he'd take the case. Then it would probably take at least another year of waiting. It's our deepest wish that we make it the first go-round. Will save the wait, worry, fear of losing the house (which hubby worries about all the time) and the attorneys fee which would be 25% of back SSD or a maximum of $5300.00. Sucks. We sure could sure use that money.

Again, my apologies for not posting more often. You've all been a grand support system for me since this began and I feel guilty for not keeping everyone up-to-date. Life has been a bit insane here. I've not been working my program as I should. Hell, I'm not working any kind of program. I run out of steam a lot from stress and focusing on myself is difficult at this point.

Love and Blessings, Kathy:bighug: